What are some good ways to participate if you don't have an HF radio? (Alternatively, what's a good way to get into HF if you live in a small apartment)?
(I already have my license)
2025 ARRL Field Day
21–30 of 41 posts
Re: 2025 ARRL Field Day
#22Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes and no. Contestants can be pushy and hasty . It’s not fun if you just want a casual contact or if you don’t have a computer nearby . I do most contacts while hiking and I don’t enjoy contests
It's pretty much what you make of it. I participated in Field Day with a club many years ago. It was basically an excuse to get out of town, setup a station (led by people who loved that aspect, and they served as mentors to those who were new to setting up a station), make contacts or achieve goals that would be difficult to do under ordinary circumstances, give new members a chance to learn new skills, test an expe…
I like field day field ops that’s fine , just not trying to contact during big field days
Re: 2025 ARRL Field Day
#23If I may wax nostalgic for a moment: I got my original Novice license in 1990 I think (age 12). I was SO excited to participate in my local club’s Field Day outing - but it was a nail biter for my physical license to arrive in the mail in time. I’d somehow gotten the word from the FCC that my license was issued and I got my call sign (KB2NDR) but I was so worried it wouldn’t get to my house in time for the weekend (a…
KA2PLF, similar, 12 or so, which would be 82 or so. Novice required code and only allowed code at the time. Took part in a few field days from locations up in the mountains in upstate NY where they threw pipes into a lake for ground and strung huge dipoles in the trees.
Re: 2025 ARRL Field Day
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
> They found out that I had an Oscar 10/13 satellite station Personally, or you had access to one? I am a hobbyist and amateur, so I don’t know how significant this is, but I want to learn!
I had the equipment. 2-meter SSB/CW receiver, 70cm SSB/CW transmitter, large 2-meter and 70cm yagi antennas and an azimuth/elevation rotator. Oscar 10 and 13 were amateur satellites in HEO (Molniya) orbit. They were super fun to operate since the passes lasted for hours.
Did you have to do anything nonstandard to assist the team? I find the whole hobby rather interesting and want to get more into it. My grandparents’ old C/Ku band receiver and giant dish led to discovering some trunk feeds and started my curiosity, but most of my radio work has involved WiFi. With WiFi, the use case and radios available without a license somewhat limited what I even thought to try.
I guess I’ll see if there is a local club I can join to meet some folks and see what they’re doing.
What did you normally use the equipment for, since you weren’t in the club prior to your contact with the record breaking group?
Re: 2025 ARRL Field Day
#25Back in the early 90's, I worked with some guys that were in the San Jose State radio club, W6YL. Although Field Day is not a contest, these guys really really wanted to finish in the top 10 for class 2A. They found out that I had an Oscar 10/13 satellite station and begged me and my buddy to operate with them (there's bonus points for a satellite contact). So my buddy and I were "hired guns". We had never attended S…
> They found out that I had an Oscar 10/13 satellite station Personally, or you had access to one? I am a hobbyist and amateur, so I don’t know how significant this is, but I want to learn!
You can work the ISS fairly easily from your backyard with an Elk or Arrow antenna and full duplex radio like D72A. I have worked astronauts. During COVID, we all used to get on the satellites as part of late night passes at like 1am and make contacts with each other.
Re: 2025 ARRL Field Day
#26Back in the early 90's, I worked with some guys that were in the San Jose State radio club, W6YL. Although Field Day is not a contest, these guys really really wanted to finish in the top 10 for class 2A. They found out that I had an Oscar 10/13 satellite station and begged me and my buddy to operate with them (there's bonus points for a satellite contact). So my buddy and I were "hired guns". We had never attended S…
> Although Field Day is not a contest, these guys really really wanted to finish in the top 10 for class 2A. That’s literally a contest. If the scoring was private maybe I’d agree. Field Day may serve other purposes too, but it’s a contest, if not purely so.
That’s like saying POTA is a contest which it isn’t
Re: 2025 ARRL Field Day
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
I had the equipment. 2-meter SSB/CW receiver, 70cm SSB/CW transmitter, large 2-meter and 70cm yagi antennas and an azimuth/elevation rotator. Oscar 10 and 13 were amateur satellites in HEO (Molniya) orbit. They were super fun to operate since the passes lasted for hours.
Did you have to do anything nonstandard to assist the team? I find the whole hobby rather interesting and want to get more into it. My grandparents’ old C/Ku band receiver and giant dish led to discovering some trunk feeds and started my curiosity, but most of my radio work has involved WiFi. With WiFi, the use case and radios available without a license somewhat limited what I even thought to try. I guess I’ll see i…
I used the equipment for the same reason, to communicate through the Oscar 10 and 13 satellites at home. Oscar 10 was launched in 1983. At that time, I was living in an apartment. I strung up some smaller yagis on the balcony that fortunately faced towards the southwest. I was able to use some, but not all passes of the satellite.
I also used the equipment for terrestrial communications. When I started renting a house, I put up a large yagi for 2-meters. With SSB, you can make contacts out to about 300-400 miles. Enough for contacts between Silicon Valley and the Los Angeles area.
I also made much longer distance contacts with that station with special propagation modes. Meteor bounce, sporadic-E and trans-Pacific (Hawaii) ducting (about 2400 miles).
For the 70cm equipment, I participated in VHF/UHF contests with multioperator groups. This is where we'd go to mountain tops to operate. I was lucky enough to operate from Mt. Pinos a couple of times before ham radio was banned from there. Mt. Pinos is a 8847 ft. mountain at the southern end of the central valley and by far the best location for VHF/UHF operating.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Pinos
Of course, this was in the 80's and 90's. Nowadays, weak signal VHF/UHF may not be very active where you live.
Re: 2025 ARRL Field Day
#28If I may wax nostalgic for a moment: I got my original Novice license in 1990 I think (age 12). I was SO excited to participate in my local club’s Field Day outing - but it was a nail biter for my physical license to arrive in the mail in time. I’d somehow gotten the word from the FCC that my license was issued and I got my call sign (KB2NDR) but I was so worried it wouldn’t get to my house in time for the weekend (a…
I got my ticket at 14 in 1996, which led me to a career in the LMR/Telecom world - I have few regrets, my job is close enough to my hobby that it never gets old. I did my extra on a lark without studying for it.
I did end up getting a vanity 1x3 along the way, because my original call was awful, both over phonetics and spoken.
Re: 2025 ARRL Field Day
#29If I may wax nostalgic for a moment: I got my original Novice license in 1990 I think (age 12). I was SO excited to participate in my local club’s Field Day outing - but it was a nail biter for my physical license to arrive in the mail in time. I’d somehow gotten the word from the FCC that my license was issued and I got my call sign (KB2NDR) but I was so worried it wouldn’t get to my house in time for the weekend (a…
[deleted]
Re: 2025 ARRL Field Day
#30I haven't even been able to get an antenna into the air, it's been thunder and lightning the past 3 days at my QTH after about a week of heat and clear skies. schedules just never line up, ha!